Thanks for signing up! You might also like these other newsletters:

Kithe Brewster knows what's fabulous: The celebrity stylist and New York Fashion Week mainstay has worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood, music, and fashion, from Julianne Moore, Drew Barrymore, and Jessica Simpson to Beyonce, Eve, and Outkast to Heidi Klum and Tyra Banks. Most recently, Brewster styled the wedding of Real Housewives of Atlanta's Cynthia Bailey. But as he clocked countless hours over the last two decades dressing the celebrity elite and influencing pop culture via dozens of magazine covers, music videos, and more, the fashion innovator's health was plummeting fast. As his jet-setting lifestyle trumped healthy eating and regular exercise and exacerbated stress, Kithe Brewster grew to a staggering 300 pounds, with a 49-inch waist and high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol.

"As Kithe's success grew, so did he," says his sister Kacy Duke, a celebrity trainer. "He knew how worried I was — my family would tell him he was a heart attack waiting to happen. But I knew his motivation to lose weight had to come from within."

Eventually something triggered Kithe to make a change: his mobility. "It got to the point where he was so heavy he couldn't walk without breathing heavily," says Duke. "I told him that moving is a privilege and he needs to celebrate his body, and I think that helped him to take action."

The First Step in Kithe Brewster's Weight Loss Plan

Last November, he turned to the Duke Diet & Fitness Center for help. (Sister Kacy is unrelated to the center). The Durham, N.C.-based center is one of the nation's most successful weight loss programs, with more than 35 years experience helping people make significant weight and lifestyle changes. About 80 percent of Duke Diet participants have maintained or improved their weight loss a year after completing the program.

"I knew I needed to get to a much, much better place. I'd fallen into some horrible vices over the past few years, and I never wanted to feel out of control of my life again," says Brewster about his decision to go to Duke. "It was a very conscious decision to change my body, change my life, and just become more fit."

The center offers residential-style programs in which participants live nearby for five days to four or more weeks, spending their time working with various specialists on a well-rounded approach to weight loss. One of the most influential aspects of the Duke plan is its comprehensive approach to healthy weight loss.

"People have unhealthy habits for a reason. Anyone can change them for a while but adopting a new lifestyle is a big deal. If you don't attend to all the other 'stuff,' you'll have a hard time adopting better habits for life," says the program's executive director Howard Eisenson, MD. While at Duke, Brewster worked with a power team that included doctors, nutritionists, exercise physiologists, and psychologists.

"For people like Kithe who are extremely busy working, it's common to put yourself on the back burner and devote all of your energy to helping others and meeting deadlines," says Sofia Rydin-Gray, PhD, assistant director of behavioral health and lifestyle coaching at the Duke Diet & Fitness Center. "It makes sense when you're passionate about what you do, but it's extremely important [for weight loss] to make yourself a priority."

A Major Wakeup Call: High Cholesterol, Blood Pressure, and BMI

Rising before 6 AM each day, Brewster spent the first days of his four-week stay at Duke undergoing a battery of health tests just like all participants. He was shocked to learn how high his blood pressure was – 144/96 mm/HG. (A reading over 120/80 is considered high.) The Duke doctors recommended that he get an EKG to make sure his heart was healthy enough to endure a new exercise regimen. For the first time, Brewster realized how seriously overweight he was; the combination of a high BMI (body mass index), large waistline, high blood pressure, and abnormal cholesterol were dramatically raising his risk of heart attack, stroke, and diabetes.

"It's easy to not be motivated to go work out or eat the right things because they're never available," Brewster says. The alarming medical test results made him eager to jump into all of the programming Duke had to offer.

This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here.

Advertising Notice

This Site and third parties who place advertisements on this Site may collect and use information about your visits to this Site and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like to obtain more information about these advertising practices and to make choices about online behavioral advertising, please click here.